This invention relates to a user interface method for personal communication devices that operates using audio prompts, simple binary state sensors and timing circuitry. The user interface guides the user through option menus and the selection process.
This invention has been designed to solve problems presented by conventional user interfaces in consumer electronic products. It relates to a process and the configuration of apparatus that can accurately and automatically interpret the user""s desired selection without the requirement that the user be able to read. One aspect of the interface of the present invention resides in its ease of use, especially for children, for illiterate people and people less technically able. The device can be embedded inside almost any product but the preferred embodiment is directed to telecommunication devices such as cell phones embedded in a product, without affecting the external aesthetics of the product.
Applicant is aware of prior art within the field of user interfaces for consumer electronic products, for example interfaces employing voice recognition, graphic touch panels, and intelligent keypads. Such prior art user interfaces for consumer electronic products consist of a broad range of technology mixes. The current trend is to use a more organic style of interface such as voice recognition or graphical interfaces rather than arrays of mechanical buttons. Some devices attempt to guess a user""s most probable decisions, making navigating complex decision trees more tolerable. The present invention is derived out of necessity for an easy-to-use interface that may be embedded in a plush toy and operate without a keypad or display, which would detract from the aesthetics of the plush design of such a toy. As far as applicant is aware, only voice recognition is a viable contender for the desired application of the present invention in that voice recognition does not alter the external aesthetics of a product in which the device is embedded. The current limitations of voice recognition technology make it less well suited for the design of the present invention unless used only as a binary state device as better described below.
One object of this invention is to provide an alternative method of operating complex electronic equipment such as cellular or wireless telephones or other personal communication devices, wherein audio prompts guide the user through options, and the user responds with a timely action to accept or reject the specific option presented during a corresponding time window.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an audible audio prompted, binary sensor interface for a consumer electronic device, for example, personal communications devices wherein such a device might be unintrusively or unobviously embedded in a soft toy for operation by a child.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a wireless telephone embedded within plush doll/toy or the like, wherein arm or leg position indicates function including telephone functions such as
(a) whisper mode, where the hands/paws are together cupping the mouth;
(b) broadcast speak mode, where the arms/legs are wide; and,
(c) standby mode, where the hands/paws are together in front; and
wherein squeezing the ears or other appendage controls volume, hugging/squeezing indicates input, or shaking the doll/toy causes giggling by the doll/toy to indicate that power is on.
In the present invention, the user of a telecommunication device is presented with an action, an option or a series of options via audio messages. The user indicates acceptance or rejection of an option with a timely action, such as pressing a button disguised within a product such as a plush doll. The timely action must occur during the time window in which the audio message implicitly or explicitly indicates the intention to accept or reject an option. Otherwise, the interface indicates the default selection to the device. The interface is thus well adapted for use by a child, or for example by a visually impaired person, or even merely for use by people who are driving automobiles and should not be taking their eyes from the road ahead.
The invention is thus, in one aspect, a process of navigating menus or selecting actions or options. The process utilises a sensor system configured to behave as a binary state switch along with an audio presentation and feedback system. These two elements are synchronised to permit correlation analysis of signals, which yields information or signals that indicate the user""s selected option or desired action.
The novelty lies, at least in part, in the ability of a binary device, such as a push button, to select one of multiple options by indicating the option as desired or undesired as they are presented through time via speech. Acceptance or rejection is indicated by the presence of one or the other of the two possible binary states during the corresponding time window.
The binary state switch could be a push button switch, a microphone with audio detection processing, a motion sensor, a light detector, a rotary encoder, voice recognition processing or any other devices or processes configured to be a binary state indicator, either in singularity or plurality.
The selection time window can be within the time domain of spoken words or sounds of the prompt, which may include quiet time and may also include, or consist only of, other audible queues or music.
This interface protocol permits functional manipulation of complex devices, such as personal telecommunication devices without the necessity of the visual feedback via textual or graphic data. Since the sensor functions change with time rather than placement, both visual and tactile demands placed upon the user are dramatically reduced, offering an advantage over the complex array of graphic symbols and the symbolic placement of buttons found on multifunction keypads. In the present invention an action is converted to a binary electrical impulse, which is correlated to a precisely timed audible audio data stream. The correlated data indicates the desired action or option selected by the user. This allows a device such as a telecommunication device to be embedded in a product without altering the external aesthetics of the product. The product can be, but is not limited to, a plush toy. In some cases, the ability to be hidden within the product will be an essential component of the invention""s application.
In a further aspect, the present invention is a communication protocol that defines the parameters of actions, data transfer, acknowledgment and response for the purpose of a user interface in a consumer electronic device. The user/operator listens to a stream of audio messages that indicate available options. The user selects an action, an option or an optional path through a menu tree by biasing, such as toggling or otherwise reversing the state of the binary state device, so as to select the alternative choice, action or path available at that moment. Alternatively, the user makes no selection, which indicates acceptance of a default choice, direction or action.
In one embodiment, the audio stream may present an ongoing list during which the user intervenes to select the desired option. The default action in this embodiment may then be to merely present the next item in the list.
The present invention may be described as a binary state time domain multiple selection protocol in which a binary state indicates a selection by inversion of the binary state during the defined time window for the desired selection utilising mechanical, electromechanical and electronic circuitry. The present invention requires the presence of three key elements, a binary input mechanism, an audible output system and a method for keeping track of the state of the binary state input device as the messages are being presented. The user interface is a timing based multiple selection protocol consisting of mechanical, electromechanical and electronic circuitry for a novel method of making and selection from a menu or list of items.
Thus, in summary, the present invention consists of a binary state, time domain, multiple selection protocol in which a binary state indicates selection of an option by inversion of the binary state during the defined time window for the desired action or option. The action or option is presented in an audible audio information stream that is precisely timed or synchronised with the monitoring of the binary state sensors to allow electronic signals to indicate and be processed in such a manner as to yield information regarding the user""s choice.
The audio stream presents a series of actions or options from which the user may select an option via any binary state indicator, such as a push button switch. The device may also operate with a limited binary state voice recognition interface. A preset default option is assumed unless indicated by reversing the state of the indicator during the time domain of presentation of information pertaining to the desired option. Presented information is any audio information that could be used to indicate the nature of an option and its selection time frame.
The configuration of electronic components, circuitry, mechanical or electromechanical sensors and/or computer software/firmware for providing information to the user and the host system regarding the user-desired action or option uses such physical resources and time stamping to determine the user""s activity and report information via an electronic or mechanical signal that a processor can process as a specific action or intent.
A device incorporating the present invention may operate while embedded in another product, without altering the external aesthetics of the product, and without visually disclosing the embedded functionality. The product may be a soft or flexible toy such as a plush doll or figure.
Put another way, the present invention may be summarized as an audio prompted telecommunication interface device using a binary state time domain multiple selection protocol wherein the device includes:
(a) a telecommunication device housing,
(b) a processor and cooperating memory and a power supply mounted in the housing,
(c) an audio broadcaster mounted in the housing and cooperating with the processor for audibly broadcasting outside of the housing a sequenced series of audible prompts supplied by the processor to the audio broadcaster,
(d) a binary state input switch mounted in the housing for receiving binary state input from a user, the input for binary biasing of the input switch between opposite binary states in response to a single prompt of the series of audible prompts,
(e) a timer cooperating with the processor, the processor correlating the response to the single prompt with a corresponding single time domain within a sequential series of time domains timed by the timer, and
(f) the processor correlating the single time domain with the single prompt and executing a single action corresponding to the single prompt according to an instruction set in the memory, wherein, if the single action is a telecommunication action, the processor executing the single action in further cooperation with a telecommunication transceiver mounted in the housing.
Advantageously, the device housing has a flexible surface and the input receiver is mounted beneath the flexible surface. The device housing has an audio transmitting surface and the broadcaster is mounted beneath the audio transmitting surface. The device housing may be a soft toy such as a plush toy.
In one aspect of the present invention, the plush toy may have at least one appendage. Such an appendage would be pivotally mounted to a body of the plush toy. The appendage cooperates with the processor so that a first position of the appendage relative to the body switches the processor into a stand-by mode, and a second position of the appendage relative to the body switches the processor into an active mode so as to trigger the series of prompts. Advantageously the appendage is an opposed pair of elongate appendages such as arms, legs or the like. The pair of appendages may pivot relative to the body between a resiliently clamped, closed position wherein the appendages are adjacent, and a spread position wherein the pair of appendages are spaced apart. The first position may be the closed position and the second position may be the spread position.
In one embodiment, the first and second positions lie substantially in a first plane. In a third position the pair of appendages are elevated out of the first plane. In the second position the audio broadcaster audibly transmits at a first audible volume and in the third position the audio broadcaster audibly transmits at a second audible volume, wherein the first audible volume may be greater than the second audible volume. In the third position the ends of the arms, which may be shaped as hands, cup a mouth of the plush toy. In this embodiment the audio broadcaster may be mounted behind the mouth of the plush toy. When the ends of the arms are hands in the first position the hands are together in front of the plush toy, and in the second position the hands are widely spread apart.
In a further aspect of the present invention the input switch is a push-button switch, and the series of audible prompts are prompts in a multi-level menu tree. The input switch may also be the microphone in conjunction with software to detect any audible response versus no audible response, the audible response biasing the binary switch to its opposite binary state. The series of audible prompts may comprise a sequentially audibly broadcast list of names from a list of names in the memory, wherein the single prompt is a single name from the list and the single action corresponding to the single name is to dial a telephone number, from a corresponding list of telephone numbers, corresponding to the single name. Advantageously the list of names may be statistically ordered based on frequency and time of calling by the user so as to present first numbers most likely to be called. In one preferred embodiment, the input button switch may be biased a plurality of times in rapid succession and the action corresponding to the single action is different depending on the number of times the input switch is biased in rapid succession. In another preferred embodiment the speed of audible presentation of the prompts may be increased by compressing the audio data in the prompts, and in such a case the prompts may be sped-up in an adaptive feedback loop so as to increase the presentation speed until user mistake meet a threshold cut-off level.
The method of the present invention comprises the steps of:
(a) audibly broadcasting outside of the housing from the broadcaster a sequenced series of audible prompts supplied by the processor to the audio broadcaster,
(b) receiving binary state input to the input receiver from a user, the input binary toggling the binary state input receiver in response to a single prompt of the series of audible prompts,
(c) timing, by the timer, a sequential series of time domains,
(d) correlating, by the processor, the response to the single prompt with a corresponding single time domain within the sequential series of time domains,
(e) correlating, by the processor, the single time domain with the single prompt, and
(f) executing a single action corresponding to the single prompt according to an instruction set in the memory.